Govt announces Customs duty cuts on goods other than textiles, agriculture

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman throughout her Budget speech on Wednesday proposed to scale back the variety of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) charges on goods other than textiles and agriculture from 21 per cent to 13 per cent.

This has necessitated minor modifications within the primary Customs duties, cesses and surcharges on some objects, together with toys, bicycles, vehicles and naphtha.

While presenting the Union Budget 2023-24 within the Parliament on Wednesday, the Finance Minister additionally emphasised on a simplified tax construction with fewer tax slabs to assist cut back the compliance burden and enhance tax administration.

In order to keep away from cascading of taxes on blended compressed pure gasoline, the Finance Minister proposed to exempt excise duty on GST-paid compressed bio-gas contained in it.

To additional present impetus to inexperienced mobility, Sitharaman introduced extending Customs duty exemption to import of capital goods and equipment required for manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries utilized in electrical autos.

Sitharaman additionally proposed to offer reduction in Customs duty on import of sure elements and inputs like digital camera lens, and continued the concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries for an additional yr with the intention to additional deepen home worth addition within the manufacturing of cellphones.

The minister mentioned that cell phone manufacturing in India elevated from 5.8 crore items valued at about Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to 31 crore items valued at over Rs 2,75,000 crore within the final monetary yr on account of the varied initiatives undertaken by the federal government, together with the phased manufacturing programme.

She additionally proposed to scale back the BCD on elements of open cells of TV panels to 2.5 per cent to advertise worth addition within the manufacturing of televisions.

“There might be a rise within the BCD on electrical kitchen chimneys from 7.5 per cent to fifteen per cent and a discount on warmth coils from 20 per cent to fifteen per cent. This change would rectify inversion of duty construction and encourage manufacturing of electrical kitchen chimneys,” the Finance Minister mentioned.

Sitharaman additionally proposed to exempt BCD on denatured ethyl alcohol.

She introduced decreasing Customs duty on acid grade fluorspar from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent to make the home fluorochemicals trade aggressive.

The BCD on crude glycerin to be used in manufacture of epichlorohydrin was additionally proposed to be lowered from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The Finance Minister proposed to scale back the Customs duty on key inputs for home manufacturing of shrimp feed to reinforce the export competitiveness of marine merchandise.

She acknowledged that the marine merchandise recorded the very best export development within the final monetary yr, benefiting farmers within the coastal states of the nation.

The Budget additionally proposed to nullify the customs duty on seeds used within the manufacturing of Lab Grown Diamonds from the present 5 per cent.

The Finance Minister proposed to extend the duties on articles created from dore and bars of gold and platinum to reinforce the duty differential.

To facilitate the provision of uncooked supplies for the metal sector, Sitharaman proposed to proceed the exemption from Customs duty on uncooked supplies for manufacture of CRGO Steel, ferrous scrap and nickel cathode.

She additionally proposed to proceed the concessional Customs duty of two.5 per cent on copper scrap to make sure the provision of uncooked supplies for secondary copper producers who’re primarily within the MSME sector.

The Finance Minister in her Budget speech additionally revised upwards the National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on specified cigarettes by about 16 per cent. It was final revised three years in the past.

(With inputs from IANS)